Pajama-Clad Hero

There's nothing more inconvenient than a Call to Adventure in the middle of the night.

"Not bad for a man in his jimjams! Very Arthur Dent. Now there's a nice man."

— The Tenth Doctor, Doctor Who, "The Christmas Invasion"

If there's one thing worse than the advancing hordes of evil turning up on your doorstep and forcing you onto a long quest to save the world, it's when it happens before you've even had your coffee. You finally got a chance to catch some sleep, and got rudely awoken by The Call in the middle of the night, telling you to rush out of the house without so much as a chance to get dressed. Or even put on your shoes (though maybe you prefer it).

Some heroes spend virtually their entire adventure wearing nothing but their jimmy-jams. On the plus side, they're comfy and warm, and a stylish dressing-gown can lend a touch of the Badass Longcoat. But you do tend to look a tad ridiculous, and a dressing-gown over a long nightshirt may be confused with Sword and Sandal wear, the Middle Eastern traditional costume descended from it, or wizard robes.

The implications of this may vary. In some cases it may simply mean that the hero was caught off guard and didn't have time to get properly dressed. In others, it may be used as a not-so-subtle indication that none of what's happening is real.

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Examples:

Always pajama-clad

Anime & Manga

• Technically, Near from Death Note is always in pajamas.
• Averted in The Adventures of Peter Pan. The Darling siblings are almost always depicted as this, but in this particular adaptation they manage to get their normal clothes before being whisked away by Peter.
• Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle: Since most every chapter either ends with her falling asleep or starts with her waking up, the Princess spends most of her time in her (admittedly extra-fancy) pajamas.
• Cardcaptor Sakura has the titular Sakura get thrown into action while still in her pajamas on quite a few occasions.

Comic Books

• Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman, who is decidedly Not a Morning Person, decides one Monday morning that he simply doesn't care, and is going to go to work in his pajamas. This also turns out to be the morning when he meets future love interest Lena.

Comic Strips

• Little Nemo is the most iconic Pajama-Clad Hero.
• Mickey "The Yellow Kid" Dugan at first wore a blue nightgown handed down from an older sister until he switched to his trademark yellow nightshirt.

Films — Animation

• Coraline: In The Film of the Book, Coraline Jones wears pajamas for maybe over half the film.
• How to Catch a Cold: The protagonist spends the entire short in his pyjamas, because he's just woken up and has to stay in bed from his cold.
• Boo from Monsters, Inc. appears to be wearing a pink nightshirt, lavender stockings, and white socks throught the entire film (except when she is wearing a makeshift costume Sulley and Mike made to hide her identity).
• Wendy, Michael and John in Disney's Peter Pan are in their pajamas for the entire film.
• The kids in The Polar Express, both the original book and the animated film, are all dressed in pajamas and nightgowns, since they were all summoned from their beds for the train ride.
• In the second half of Rise of the Guardians, the kids are outside in winter in their pajamas. Jamie and Sophie are noticeably barefoot, Jamie was even standing on a frozen lake. Considering they are with Jack Frost perhaps he did something to make sure they'd be okay.
• Edmund from Rock-A-Doodle, but only when he's a live-action human. He wears doll clothes after being turned into a cartoon cat by the evil owl.
• The titular character in the BBC computer-animated movie The Tale of Jack Frost based on the children's book of the same name. He wears only his pajama pants, and is shirtless and barefoot in the snow.

Films — Live-Action

• Arthur Dent in The Film of the Book of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005).
• MirrorMask: Helena spends well over half her adventure in her pajamas and bunny slippers.
• L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries spends the entirety of Rear Window in a pair of blue pajamas.

Literature

• In the Altraterra series by Yvonne Pioch, Anne spends the first quarter of the book (the ride to Academy) only in her nightshirt as she had to flee with others in haste. Given that she has to ride in it for days without change or a chance to wash it, it created a huge discomfort to her, especially when she arrived to the academy. Imagine being led before the ruling body (which resides in academy) wearing nothing but a ragged, partially ripped, smelly nightshirt...
• Scrooge in A Christmas Carol is haunted by the spirits during the night before Christmas, so he travels through time wearing his dressing gown.
• In J. K. Rowling's The Christmas Pig, the title character actually suggests that Jack change into normal clothes before starting their adventure, but he declines. He's also barefoot, in part because his slippers had come to life. In the Land of the Lost he claims to be an action figure named Pajama Boy, "with the power of sleep and dreams." He has his own cartoon.
• Sarah from Greystone Valley is in tattered blue pajamas up until the very final act.
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy: Arthur Dent hitchhikes the galaxy in his pajamas and bathrobe. He finally gets a change of clothes in So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. In the radio series, the first book and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams wasn't entirely clear what Arthur was wearing; he wrote a scene for the TV series in which the Heart of Gold provides him with new clothes, but this was vetoed by the director, on the grounds that it was funnier for him to be in his pajamas. Since Adams then wrote Arthur as still in his (increasingly tattered) dressing gown in Life, the Universe and Everything, he presumably agreed.
• Downplayed with Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. He's wearing only 'around the hole' clothes when he has to leave in a hurry to meet the dwarves. He doesn't have time for any kind of packing, so he runs off without a hat, a walking-stick, money, or any pocket-handkerchiefs.
• In Little Peters Journey To The Moon, Peter and Anneli embark on their journey in their nightgowns.
• In the Mabel Jones series, the heroine, Mabel, never takes off her pyjamas while in the Noo World, despite wearing the pyjamas for weeks without changing them. This is taken to ridiculous levels during the only time she DID take them off - dressing a skeleton in her pyjamas as a distraction- only to immediately change back into her pyjamas when the danger was over despite them just being on a, well, skeleton. She must really like wearing her pyjamas.
• Delphie in the first book of the Magic Ballerina series, "Delphie and the Magic Ballet Shoes", spends her first trip to Enchantia wearing her pajamas.
• Georgina in The Magic Light by Gabrielle Alioth. She is transferred onto a magic island from her bedroom, pajama-clad and barefoot. At some point she lampshades this by saying that if she knew she would go on an adventure, she would be dressed more appropriately.
• The eponymous character of Jodi Lynn Anderson's May Bird series spends the entire 3rd book in pajamas and a bathing suit.
• The Darling children in Peter Pan are possibly the Trope Codifiers. However, given that they spent several days if not weeks in Neverland, it's left vague as to whether or not they did continue wearing their pajamas. Some illustrations subvert the trope by having Wendy make new clothes made from the forests of Neverland for herself and her siblings to wear, only to return back into their pajamas when they finally return home to London.
• In 'Tom's Midnight Garden' by Philippa Pearce, Tom spends most of his visits to the garden in pajamas, and one slipper (he used the other slipper to prop open a door, before travelling to the garden).
• The titular realm in Unimaa is a Dream Land, so it makes sense that every child there would be in pajamas. In fact, for the members of the secret society within, this is one of the things that makes them realize the place was turned into a Lotus-Eater Machine after having been there for years without waking up or aging at all, because their leader tricked them into giving her their souls.

Puppet Shows

• Bananas in Pyjamas: The bananas always wear their pajamas, hence their name. As they themselves admit, this is entirely by choice, since they love wearing their pajamas which they say are really comfortable. The only time they had to take them off was because they needed to wash the pajamas and they wasted no time putting their pajamas back on the first chance they got.
• The Pajanimals is a children's series about four anthropomorphic animals who sing songs related to getting ready to bed in the original shorts and in the full version series travel off to magical lands at nighttime to deal with various issues. As the name implies, they are almost always show in their pajamas, though they are very rarely depicted with them off for bathtime and it's implied that they still do stuff like go to school and don't wear them when they do that; we just don't ever see it.

Theatre

• Clara/Marie from The Nutcracker spends most of the show in her nightie, since the whole thing is a dream sequence.
• The Darling children in Peter Pan are almost always shown in their pajamas. However, some renditions of the play would have them swap their pajamas for woodland-inspired green clothes similar to Peter Pan himself once they settled in Neverland.

Video Games

• In Among the Sleep, you play as a two-year-old boy in his pajamas exploring the house at night, staying with your Teddy, and trying to make sense of the perceived "monsters" you encounter.
• In Little Nemo: The Dream Master, the titular hero is a little boy journeying to Slumberland in his onesie pajamas.
• As a consequence of being awoken in the middle of the night, the titular protagonist of Lumen adventures around in her pajamas. One benefit of this is that it's decorated with blueish stars that become red when a hostile entity is nearby.
• Pajama Sam, the eponymous hero of the children's adventure game series, is never seen outside his footie pajamas. The premise of the game is that Sam deals with things that frighten him after he goes to bed, so his "Pajama Sam" superhero persona makes sense. Of course, his hero persona is based on his in-universe favorite comic, Pajama Man, who also embodies this trope.
• Ruff and Tumble, the male and female protagonists in the Playstation game 40 Winks wear blue and pink pajamas throughout the duration of their adventure, respectively.
• Patchoulli Knowledge from Touhou Project. Even when she's out solving incidents in the fighting games, she's still wearing her pajamas. ZUN says that "It's like how foreigners sleep in their jeans, and go shopping with them too."
• You in Fable III, if you decide saving the world should be done in your sleeping clothes.
• Super Mario Galaxy: Rosalina's dress actually resembles a nightgown, which appropriately fits the fact that she lives far out in space, where it is constantly night out (unless she is orbiting a Sun).
• Vincent from Catherine spends most of the action sequences wearing polka-dot boxers. Not that the ladies are complaining.
• Phillip of Space Funeral is always dressed in his yellow and black striped pajamas.
• Johnny Dash, the hero of Monster Bash.
• The entire premise of Knock-Knock features the Lodger wandering around his house in the early hours of the day wearing his dressing gown and slippers while avoiding ghosts.
• The Sandman (2014): Since Sophie was just trying to get some rest before the whole mess unfolded, she sets off to find out what happened while dressed in her pink sleepwear.
• Neverending Nightmares: Thomas, the player character, explores his dreams wearing his pajamas. This actually factors into gameplay, as he doesn't have space to put an inventory, and, being a horror game, the fact that he isn't wearing shoes comes back to bite him more than once.
• Averted in Yume Nikki: despite the entire game taking place in Madotsuki's bedroom and dreams, she wears a shirt and skirt instead.
• Nightmare Ned spends the duration of his adventure through the Nightmare World in his pajamas.
• Plutia from Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory onwards. Probably helps, since she's known to be quite the Sleepyhead.
• Ellie in Monster Tale is technically in her nightgown in the game, though it does resemble a regular if very plain short dress. However, the ending cinematic makes it clear that it's not her regular clothes.
• In The Secret World, Inbeda of the House In Exile spends most of his time lounging around the bathhouse in a tiger-print bathrobe and slippers, refusing to change out of it even when faced by the final battle.
• Mr. Hopp's Playhouse:
  • In the first game, you play as Ruby in her pajamas who goes looking for her parents at night, all while trying to evade her demonic stuffed rabbit.
  • In the second game, this also applies to her late grandmother, Esther when she was a kid like Ruby, where she also wear pyjamas and revealed to be the original owner of said demonic stuffed rabbit.
• Milon's Secret Castle: Milon is either wearing pajamas or overalls. The hat he's wearing looks like a night cap, so it's hard to tell.
• The player protagonist in Sacra Terra Angelic Night wanders around a dilapidated mental hospital in nothing but a hospital gown. He doesn't even wear shoes despite having to deal with brambles, rotten wood and broken glass.
• In Nekomew's Potty Trouble and Nekomew's Nightmares, you play as the titular character himself; a 4-year-old kitten who is dressed in a dark blue nightcap and nightshirt and trying to face off against the many monsters he encounters along the way.

Webcomics

• Sul spends the entirety of Kiss Wood in his pajamas, though he does find a coat early on (he loses it eventually).
• Hero in The Property of Hate spends her adventure in her yellow pajamas and wellies. She does initially have a coat but then ends up discarding it after an incident involving doubts, causing her coat to be somewhat... gelatinous.
• Being a retelling of Peter Pan, this is naturally the case for the Darlings in The Wendybird. However, after being shot by the Lost Kids, Wendy changes into clothes made from leaves. Jean and Maddie remain in their pajamas until they escape Marooner's Rock, where the Amazons give them proper clothes to change into.

Western Animation

• Lucy from 64 Zoo Lane is only ever seen wearing her light blue pajamas. At the start of every episode, she's seen tucked in bed until Georgina the Giraffe tells her to come down.
• Alvin, Simon, and Theodore of Alvin and the Chipmunks wear what are essentially color-coded nightshirts most of the time. Though they could just be large sweaters. They change into different pajama separates for bed.
• Professor Farnsworth from Futurama is always in his pajamas. However, this includes a lab coat, so maybe it's better to say he sleeps fully dressed. His catchphrase was going to be "Well I am already in my pajamas!" but was quickly dropped.
• PJ Masks: The title superheroes' costumes are made from their pajamas, hence why they can only transform at night and when wearing their pajamas. The fact that their costumes are essentially their pajamas has been mockingly lampshaded a few times by the various villains.

Real Life

• Hugh Hefner made most of his public appearances in his iconic pajamas and a smoking jacket.

Pajama-clad for one adventure, but usually dressed otherwise

Anime & Manga

• Negi Springfield of Negima! Magister Negi Magi spent the entirety of the Library Island arc in his jammies.
• After she recovered from having seen what makes the Simoun tick in Simoun, we see Dominura waltzing about the ship in a slinky nightgown for an episode or two. Bonus points for also having bed-head.
• Etsuko from Domu spends the last half of the manga in her pajamas, being bed-ridden in the hospital after trauma. She also has the superpowered psychic fight of her life wearing them.
• Cardcaptor Sakura: Sakura is in her pajamas when she catchest her first card, the Fly. In subsequent episodes, her friend Tomoyo provides costumes.
• In episode 52 of Sonic X, Tails gets woken up in the middle of the night by Eggman. He hops in the Tornado in his pajamas, though they're only there for a scene or two. Which is odd, because he usually doesn't wear clothes of any kind, not counting shoes and gloves.
• An odd example, but an early episode of HeartCatch Pretty Cure! had Tsubomi, who had stayed home ill after learning the cute Student Council President was actually a girl, race to save her in her pajamas. After saving the day, she doesn't realize she was still in these clothes until said President questions why she was in school in her pajamas.
• Episode 4 of Kill la Kill had the heroine Ryuko Matoi in bunny pajamas because she's forced to go to school at 4 in the morning while Senketsu's being washed.
• Blue Exorcist has Rin in his pajamas during the Kyoto/Impure King arc on the second day - due to getting dragged away to train and other circumstances, Rin ends up defeating the Eldritch Abomination that threatens Kyoto while not only in his pajamas, but in bare feet.
• In Episode 34 of Powerpuff Girls Z the girls have a sleepover at Miyako/Bubbles' house and spend most of the episode in their pajamas while trying to escape. Once they finish cleaning the house, their stuck pajama-clad and barefoot for the remainder of the episode (with the exception of one moment when they transform).
• In the Inuyasha Episode "Terror of the Ancient Noh Mask", Kagome and her brother Sota are attacked at their house by the Noh Mask, who is trying to steal the Sacred Jewel Fragments. They escape, but they are rushed outside so fast that they aren't given time to change out of their pajamas or put on shoes. At the end of the episode, the sun rises, and Kagome suddenly remembers that she's still in her pajamas. When she does, she rushes off to go change for school, not wanting to be late.
• In episode 5 of the 3×3 Eyes OVA, Pai and several other characters are stuck pajama-clad and barefoot.
• In the classic Sailor Moon episode "Naru's Tears: Nephrite Dies for Love" Naru/Molly is kidnapped at night while she was sleeping. For the remainder of the episode, she is stuck in her pajamas and barefoot. Once she is rescued by Nephrite, she notices his arm is injured. To help him, she rips off part of her pajama shirt and ties it around his arm.
• Digimon Adventure:
  • On their first encounter with Devimon, the kids get ambushed while in bed at an abandoned, but fully equipped inn after a nice bath and dinner. Then Devimon reveals that, save for the floor and beds, everything was an illusion, including the sleepwear they put on, leaving everyone in their underwear. They only put their clothes back on after being sent away in different directions.
  • Mimi spends episodes 35 till 37 in her pajamas because Myotismon launches his attack on Tokyo while she was in bed, and she is unable to return home and change clothes during the events that follow.
  • The prequel short movie had Tai and Kari in their pajamas for most of the film, including the climactic fight.

Comic Books

• The Incredible Hulk: The Hulk, believe it not was this, complete with bunny slippers while strapped to the brim with ammo and a BFG, no less.
• Power Pack in their first adventure where they gained their powers and rescued their parents from the Snarks. Justified since the Snark attacked them in the middle of the night and the kids got dragged into the fight without a chance to get dressed first.

Fan Works

• Though not exactly a hero, in the Death Note fic Welcome To The Family when Near and Matt barge into his room in the middle of the night, they find Light Yagami with messy hair and wearing fuzzy, black and white skull and cross bone pajamas, though Light claims it's not his usual choice in pajamas either but that his jailers have a bad sense of humor. Ultimately subverted since Light insists on getting dressed before doing anything though Near (who is a straight example of this trope) can't imagine why and uses his wanting to get dressed first like a normal person as yet another excuse to accuse him again of being Kira.
• In A.A. Pessimal's Discworld/The Big Bang Theory crossover The Many Worlds Interpretation, Discworld Assassin Johanna Smith-Rhodes, responding quickly to an emergency need to guard Sheldon Cooper against a peril they have brought from the Disc with them, reasons that good weapons are more vital in a fight than getting dressed. Thus she pulls her weapons-belt on over very minimal nightwear. This provokes a certain jealousy from Howard and Raj the next morning, who bemoan the fact that hot chicks always get naked in front of a man it's wasted on.
• X-Men: First Class fic For Protection from Monsters has the Brotherhood attack the school at night. They never actually leave home, but Storm and Cyclops end up fighting in their pajamas.
• Oversaturated World: One Day I Found a Multiverse in My Pajamas, where Ditzy Doo finds out about the multiverse, while in her pajamas.
• The Mate of the KuvaH'magh SoS. B'Elanna Torres dresses in her blood-red Klingon Battle Pyjamas for a confrontation with Seven of Nine.
• In the King Kong (2005) fanfic More Than a Monster, Anthony Darrow (male Ann Darrow) was wearing a thin undershirt and plaid pajama pants when the natives of Skull Island kidnapped him to offer him to Kong, and was barefoot through the whole ordeal.

Films — Live-Action

• Ann Darrow in King Kong (2005) spends most of her scenes at Skull Island in her nightgown and a robe as she was kidnapped by the Skull Island tribe as she prepared to sleep. She was also barefoot through it all.
• The second time Stanley Ipkiss dons The Mask, he does so while wearing his pajamas. This leads to the police suspecting him of being involved with a bank heist committed by his alter-ego, after part of The Mask's zoot suit is shot off and morphs back into a scrap of Stanley's nautical-themed jammies for the cops to find.
  Stanley: "That's... impossible!"
  Det. Kellaway: "Those pajamas are impossible, Ipkiss. This actually happened!"
• A bathrobe-clad Wendy is chased by her Axe-Crazy husband in the climax of The Shining.

Literature

• 1066 and All That:
  On the death of William IV, Queen Victoria, though asleep at the time and thus in her nightdress, showed great devotion to duty by immediately ascending the throne. In this bold act she was assisted by Lord Melbourne and the Archbishop of Canterbury, who were both properly dressed.
• James Herriot from the All Creatures Great And Small books was a country vet. This meant that he (as well as Seigfried and Tristan) spent a few stories in his pajamas being called out for a late night calving. This once caused poor James to try and purchase some coffee on the way home only to realize his wallet and his pants were not with him...
• In the Bolo short story The Murphosensor Bomb, the focus character and her commanding officer were so focused on tracking down and eliminating the virus that had infected Bolos across the sector that neither of them paid any attention to 1: Said focus character had gone straight from her bed to her workstation to work on this problem, and 2: She slept in the nude. Shortly after the problem was solved, she tracked down a bathrobe.
• Chrestomanci frequently appears in one fabulous dressing gown or another. This is because he's particularly vulnerable to Inconvenient Summons, and decided that if he's going to be called away in his pajamas, they're going to at least be nice ones.
• Sam Vimes of Discworld has been in this position a couple of times.
  • In Guards! Guards! he sticks his feet in Lady Sybil's bunny slippers to deal with an armed mob, and his dignity is only just saved by a dragon's timely belch.
  • In Thud!, he's woken from a deep sleep to attend a police emergency. At some point, someone (presumably Sybil) had put a ducky blanket from his son's nursery around his shoulders... he Death Glares the officers in the parlor, daring them to say one word about it.
  • A non-Vimes Discworld example: In The Light Fantastic, the Lemony Narrator says that Archancellor Galder Weatherwax manages to look impressive even in a red nightshirt and a nightcap with a bobble on the end, but the fluffy pompom slippers push it too far.
• The incident that convinced Karigan G'lahdeon that she could no longer refuse the call to be a Green Rider was an incident where she found that she had sleepwalked to her horse and ridden it several miles towards the capital in her nightgown before waking up.
• This happened to Psmith so much that it was practically a Running Gag. Fortunately, he managed to keep the Sharp-Dressed Man act up even then (on one occasion he went and found a carnation and put it in his buttonhole).
• Vorkosigan Saga: In A Civil Campaign, Miles Vorkosigan's senior bodyguard apparently prefers to sleep in his boxer shorts, which causes him some embarrassment when there's a security incident in the middle of the night. The ladies of the household are rather pleased though.
• Whateley Universe: One of the popular nicknames for Team Kimba in-universe is the Negligee Nightingales, referring to their first fight with the Yama Dojo Ninjas.
• Literature/Spellman Files: Isabel Spellman is barefoot in her pajamas at night, when she she sees something she wants to trail, so she jumps in her car and follows. She winds up arrested and in a police station, which is uncomfortable.

Live-Action TV

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In "Goodbye Iowa" Buffy is giving a Badass Boast about how she's going to track down and kill the Big Bad, then admits "that probably would've sounded more commanding if I wasn't wearing my yummy sushi pajamas."
• Doctor Who:
  • "The Christmas Invasion": The Tenth Doctor spends a good deal of time running around in his jim-jams after regenerating, even engaging in a swordfight before changing into his dayclothes. He even references his Arthur Dent look. Given that Douglas Adams was a scriptwriter for Doctor Who, this is either a Shout-Out, a Mythology Gag or both.
  • Amy Pond in "The Beast Below". The fact that it's a while before she can change into normal clothes makes her wonder if the Doctor has another agenda, not that she objects to that.
  • The Twelfth Doctor walks around in London wearing a Victorian nightshirt for a portion of "Deep Breath".
  • Clara runs around in a nightie in "Last Christmas". This is a sign that she's dreaming, but after she wakes up at the end, she doesn't hesitate to run off on another adventure with the Doctor without changing.
• Double Dare (1986): In the Super Sloppy Double Dare "Salute to breakfast" episode, Marc Summers and Harvey wear pajamas the entire time.
• Wingin' It: Carl Montclaire wears pajamas in "All Lizards Go to Heaven", Part 2.
• Omar Little from The Wire goes for a walk to get Cheerios in his turquoise pyjamas. Everyone who sees him flees.

Video Games

• In the Commander Keen game Keen Dreams, Keen goes through the entire adventure in pajamas and pink bunny slippers.
• EarthBound: Ness wears pajamas at the start of the game, and during his trip to Magicant in the American version. In the Japanese release, when Ness woke up in Magicant, he was in the buff and stayed that way save for his Signature Headgear.
• Ever Forward is an indie game where you play as a young girl named Maya, lost in Dream Land where you spend the entire game in the nightgown you slept in and barefoot whilst exploring assorted dream universes.
• Pajamas are an alternate costume for pillow-packing Sleepyhead Meitenkun in The King of Fighters XIV.
• At the beginning of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Link starts out in his crayfish pajamas, until his grandmother gives him his clothes and signature hat. In a New Game Plus, the clothes are invisible, as only the honest can see them. Thus, he has nothing but his pajamas to go adventuring in.
• In The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge, the easiest unlockable costume for Jack to get is Pajama Jack (and bonus: they're different and more colorful than the plain off-white ones from the movie, and they've even got little Jack 'O Lantern slippers).
• Naruto in Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm has a downloadable costume where he can fight in his pajamas. Save his special/Ougi, all his animations are intact, including tightening his headband that's not even there.
• Pyjamarama, in which Wally Week wanders around the house in his pajamas searching for the alarm clock to wake himself up.
• Using the Dream Suite in Animal Crossing: New Leaf requires your character to change into pajamas, in which he or she stays for the length of their visit to a dream town.
• In Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, the first playable section of the game has main character John Marston dressed in longjohns because a zombie has shown up and attacked his farm right after he woke up and didn't have time to change. After this sequence, he automatically dresses himself in his default outfit from the main game, but the player can change his outfit back to his pajamas if they want. The outfit is only available in Undead Nightmare, setting this option apart from vanilla Red Dead Redemption.
• Red Dead Redemption II: During Chapter 3, when Arthur Morgan is captured by the O'Driscolls and stripped to his union suit (which kinda looks like pajamas), he can cut himself free and cauterize the gunshot wound; he can then use this to his advantage by killing the O'Driscolls who attacked him and getting his weapons back before escaping... all while still in his union suit.
• The hero of Altered Destiny spends his whole odyssey to an alien planet in his pj's. Ironic, as that's his name: PJ.
• A minor example in Valis III, in the first level, Yuko's sword is stolen forcing her to run into the streets of Tokyo in her cute, pink pajamas, until she recovers her sword and transforms into her armor, which is a suit of Stripperiffic bikini armor that covers a lot less then the pajamas did.
• Shantae: Half-Genie Hero: The update-added Jammies Mode has Shantae go through levels in her jammies.

Web Animation

• The SuperThings episode "Halloween" shows why this can be a disadvantage. Candy Strike, having been accidentally kidnapped while asleep along with the town's Halloween candy, finds himself cornered against a group of villains in his pajamas, without his weapon and wholly unprepared to defend himself. If not for the sudden appearance of Grafon scaring the villains off, he would have been in big trouble.

Webcomics

• Gunnerkrigg Court: Antimony spends most of "Reynardine" in a nightdress and bare feet.
• Homestuck:
  • You add a SMUPPET to the mix to make a softer and more stylish RED PLUSH PUPPET TUX. It is like walking around in snugly pajamas. ACTION PAJAMAS.
  • Given that dream self clothing is effectively pajamas, this is Rose and Dave's default attire following being revived as their dream selves after death.
  • Many characters have described the outfits attained upon reaching god tier as being like pajamas.
• Housepets!: When his trap goes off in Temple Crashers 2, Keene Milton is teleported out of his bed and into the middle of a battle while still wearing his nightcap. This actually works to his advantage; The Temple grants powers to those inside based on their clothing. With the power of the nightcap, he's able to induce 'waking up', which teleports him back to bed once the temple starts collapsing.
• My Sister Suprema: Due to the bad guys luring Cecelia from her bedroom at night, she executes her first act of superpowered butt-kicking wearing only a sleeveless top and frilly pajama shorts.
  Cecelia: I don't know who you guys are but I'm not going anywhere dressed like this!
• In Yokoka's Quest, after leaving Betel's Forest, Yokoka is given starry pajamas by Yin, which she wears from chapters 2-6, until she's starts training in the underground village and is given a gi to wear instead.

Web Original

• In episode 18 of Critical Role, Percy ends up fighting off an orc ambush in the middle of the night in his pyjamas.
  Taliesin Jaffe: I'm wearing the pyjamas with the butt-flap, and the butt-flap is down. The butt-flap is DOWN!

Western Animation

• In Adventure Time's "Pajama Wars" episode, Finn and Princess Bubblegum both walk around in their pajamas the entire time, and on top of that, the latter is also barefoot throughout the episode.
• In The Amazing World of Gumball, there are two episodes where Gumball and Darwin spend the entirety of the runtime in their sleepwear. "The Castle" has the two realize that it's Saturday and that Richard is in charge of the house, where there are no rules and they are allowed to spend the day in their pajamas along with their little sister Anais. "The Vegging" has Gumball and Darwin spend an entire day doing nothing but slacking off on the couch in their pajamas. A lot of things happen around them, but they were too lazy to care or even notice.
• In American Dragon: Jake Long episode "Adventures in Troll-Sitting", Jake wears his pajamas from morning to evening as he was trying to hide the troll and get rid of the living troll furballs. He's also barefoot.
• Amphibia: The episode "The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers" has Anne, Marcy and Sprig in their pajamas throughout the whole episode. The only exception is Polly, since she doesn't wear clothes.
• In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Toph Bei Fong spends most of her debut episode in her night clothes, and gets kidnapped before beating up several grown men while so dressed. She's a 12-year-old girl.
• The Betty Boop short "Red Hot Mamma" has Betty wandering through hell in her night gown.
• On Blue's Clues & You!, both host Josh and Blue are in their pajamas throughout "Pajama Party with Blue", naturally.
• In Chaotic, the main character Tom had his first battle in Perim in his pajamas. His opponent remarked that being in pajamas is a typical sign of a newcomer.
• Code Lyoko: Some of XANA's attack happens at night, and the heroes don't always have the time to get dressed before dealing with the emergency. Notably in the episode "Is Anybody Out There?", where they have to trek to the factory in their nighties. It doesn't matter so much once they reach the scanners, though, since their Lyoko avatars are always fully equipped.
• In one episode of Codename: Kids Next Door, Numbuh Three's Rainbow Monkey toys mysteriously went missing in the night, so the team decided on the spot to search for them, not stopping to change out of their pajamas.
• The DuckTales (2017) episode "The Split Sword of Swanstantine!" has Lena and Violet in their pajamas the whole episode due to being inadvertently dragged along for an adventure while on a sleep-over.
• Gravity Falls: Dipper and Mabel spend the entirely of the first Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained short (Candy Monster) in their sleeping outfits.
• Kaijudo: In the episode "Night Moves", Allie hosts a Slumber Party with Portia, Maribel and Lucy, hoping that they former two can get along with the latter. Unfortunately, things go from bad to worse when they are attacked by Gorgeon, Shadow of Gluttony, and the girls are forced to escape it while still in their pajamas and barefoot. Lucy is the only one in her regular clothes, although she does lose her shoes later.
• On Llama Llama, the story "Lucky Pajamas" is specifically about him being in his pajamas all day because he believes them to have become lucky after Mama Llama sewed them. The original book Llama Llama Red Pajama, of course, has Llama Llama in his pajamas and is set at bedtime. The story was adapted for the animated series as well, but he's only clad towards the end of the story because most of it is actually set during daytime.
• In The Little Rascals episode "The Zero Hero", Alfalfa as Alpha-Man wears his pajamas in public, along with a towel cape and a mask which does not hide his eyes.
• The Magic School Bus: The episode "Inside Ralphie" has Ralphie in his pajamas due to being sick and thus having been made to stay home from school by his mother, Dr. Tenelli.
• Miraculous Ladybug
  • Marinette is sleeping over with Alya when Hawk Moth akumatizes Alya's younger sisters into the "Sapotis". They naturally spend the entire episode in either their pajamas or their superhero outfits.
  • In "Gorizilla", Marinette spends so much time swooning over Adrien's new ad that she misses her appointment with Alya and her other friends to hang out at the pool. She runs out, forgetting her new swimsuit and the fact that she's still in her pajamas. Before she can go back to change, she runs into Adrien who is currently on the run from his fans and his bodyguard, having snuck out to see an old movie which his Missing Mom starred in. The end result is that she spends most of the day with him, still in her pajamas. She is understandably embarrassed once this sinks in at the end of the episode.
• The Owl House: In the episode "Hunting Palismen", Luz spends the majority of the episode in her new pajamas. She does wear her Hexside uniform in a few scenes, though.
• In The Snowman, James is dressed in the daytime scenes at the beginning, but spends most of the story in his pajamas and bathrobe, since all his time with the Snowman takes place after midnight.
• South Park: At the beginning of "A Very Crappy Christmas", Kyle is worried for Mr. Hankey because the latter didn't show up at his house. The former calls his friends and they all go into the sewers to look for Mr. Hankey, their coats and jackets thrown haphazardly over pajamas. Noticeably, Kenny is wearing his trademark face-covering parka—but no trousers. Wading through rivers of hip-deep rancid feces, no less.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil: In the episode "Crystal Clear", Star is dragged off by Rhombulus to his lair in the middle of the night while in her nightgown. She also loses her socks at one point.
  • In "Total Eclipsa the Moon", Eclipsa doesn't bother to get dressed before going to the Royal Archives with Moon to find out what happened to her half-monster daughter, Meteora.
• In Steven Universe, a few episodes have Steven almost entirely dressed in his pajamas. While one episode is about a slumber party which justifies his clothing, another time he decides to not fall asleep for two nights, yet still dresses into his pajamas, ending with him following a weird creature and almost freezing to death in the warp.
• In the episode "The Good, The Bad, and the Eggly" of the VeggieTales spinoff series, LarryBoy: The Cartoon Adventures, LarryBoy and Dark Crow end up wearing footie pajamas and paper bags as costumes after their real ones get turned into over-easy eggs. The book adaptation of the episode gives extra details to the pajamas, turning them even more embarrassing, with patterns that prove they were meant for children.

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